City Presents Initiative to End HomelessnessWednesday, January 29, 2014

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — At a special media briefing today, Suzi Bach and Aimee Cox, Senior Economic Vitality Specialist, presented an action plan to address homelessness in Colorado Springs. The plan outlines immediate investment opportunities, as well as long term strategies to increase the capacity of homeless service providers in Colorado Springs to prevent and end homelessness.

Though not a direct service provider, the City of Colorado Springs is committed to engaging with service providers, business leaders, policy-makers and the public to promote community-wide collaboration and champion and invest in strategies that prevent and end homelessness in our community. The City is working with partners including El Paso County, Pikes Peak United Way, Homeward Pikes Peak, Partners in Housing, and Urban Peak.

“This plan is just a beginning,” says Aimee Cox. “In alignment with Mayor Bach’s strategic goal of transforming government, we will deploy existing resources more effectively, bring additional resources to this effort and build more momentum around the problem of homelessness in our community.”

With the launch of this initiative, the City will make available $5 million over the next two years for services, facility improvements and housing projects. The $5 million are federal funds received by the City for the purposes of providing housing and suitable living environments for persons of low and moderate income levels and for homeless prevention and rapid rehousing. Funds will be distributed through an open and competitive, Requests for Proposal (RFP) process. Outcomes will be identified, and funds will be awarded to the projects that best achieve those outcomes.

The long term intent is to build a 10 year community plan that enhances the significant work already being done, expedites new strategies to prevent and end homelessness, funnels new dollars to those strategies, and fosters a predictable and effective system to manage and deliver services. Over the next two years, the goal is to draw attention to the most pressing needs and invest available dollars immediately to address problems nearing crisis status. Some strategies will be quickly executed, while others may require more time and policy work. As we move forward, the City will remain committed to the challenge and provide leadership and resources to realize the goals in the plan.